On April 20, 1999, 18-year old Eric Harris and 17-year old Dylan Klebold, of Jefferson County, Colorado, killed 12 people and wounded 24 others before both committed suicide on the campus of Columbine High School. They had planned their violent outburst for a year. They expressed their hate and discontent with the world via website and video. This was done without parental knowledge or supervision, even though their parents were described as ""dream parents" and "caring, attentive parents."
On March 5, 2001, then 15-year old Charles Andrew Williams fatally shot two of his classmates and wounded 13 others at Santana High School in Santee, California. Williams told several people about some of the problems he was having. His divorced parents said they knew he was having problems. The day before the shooting, Williams shared information with others about the way he'd chosen to deal with his life. Because he followed his announcement with “I’m joking,” classmates would later say they didn’t take him seriously.
On April 16, 2007, 23-year-old Cho Seung-Hui killed 32 people and himself, and wounded 15 others at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia. Before the shooting, Seung-Hui’s writing assignments were described as "macabre" and "disturbing," his classmates speculated about his propensity for becoming a school shooter, and concerned faculty brought the writings to the attention of administrators.
Prior to and since 1999, there has been no shortage of school shootings by students who felt troubled and either demonstrated or spoke directly of their problems and/or their intentions. In almost every case, someone knew what was going to happen and didn’t tell anyone until a reporter or law enforcement investigator asked about their affiliation with the shooter.
I was four years old in 1966 when Charles Whitman killed 15 people and wounded 31 others in Austin, Texas. Since then, I've heard people half-joke about someone looking so stressed or being so bullied that they "might just end up on the news at the top of a tall building."
Before I knew it, there "someone" was - again and again. That the geography of violence has moved from the clock tower to the post office to the playground to the campus appears to have some seeing it all very differently when it's obvious the motives are the same: "I can't take it anymore and I don't know what else to do."
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